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Football: “WHAT THE F*CK WAS THAT”?


AncalagonTheBlack

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Heh, shit finish from Morata when in on goal, penalty shout/possible dive then Sanchez hits both posts without scoring. It’s all going off.

Final point on the Coutinho saga Barcelona might not actually have the money to pay Liverpool’s asking price at the moment. There was talk of them having a very low transfer budget before PSG bought Neymar and there have been a couple of articles about them needing to offload some players since then.

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16 minutes ago, ljkeane said:

Nothing's really changed since the summer except, since he's cup tied for Europe, there's not actually that much value in Barcelona getting him now rather than next summer. If the club have decided they've had enough they could come to an agreement for selling him in summer but I don't see the point of selling him now. It's not like they're under a lot of time pressure with the length of time left on his contract but Coutinho's still got a World Cup to worry about.

I'm going off an article that Paul Joyce posted yesterday. He claims that Coutinho is pushing for a move in this window and that Liverpool's stance is not as hardline as it was in the summer and they might be willing to do business for a fee in the region of €150m.

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Replacing Coutinho with Mahrez would be a crazy move. He's a great player but it's not as if there's a shortage of left-sided attacking players in the world that you need to force in a right sider there, especially since many of them will be more direct creative replacements than Mahrez's more out-and-out winger-forward type.

I'm seeing some chatter that we're interested in Lucas Moura this window. Not sure about that one. Great dribbler, but I dunno that he's got the other qualities we need at this point.

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2 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

I'm seeing some chatter that we're interested in Lucas Moura this window. Not sure about that one. Great dribbler, but I dunno that he's got the other qualities we need at this point.

God, I hope that's bullshit. Yeah, he's a good dribbler and quick but his decision making and end product is terrible. He isn't a youngster anymore either and those aspects of his game haven't improved.

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5 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

Replacing Coutinho with Mahrez would be a crazy move. He's a great player but it's not as if there's a shortage of left-sided attacking players in the world that you need to force in a right sider there, especially since many of them will be more direct creative replacements than Mahrez's more out-and-out winger-forward type.
 

Coutinho has played a fair bit in the number ten role of late, especially when all the ‘fab four’ are available. Number ten is an area Mahrez has excelled in this season when Puel has played him there. That was my thinking, as opposed to playing him wide left, where I don’t think Mahrez would thrive at all. He’s better central or on the right, which is already a problem as that’s Salah’s position.

 

Been an entertaining first half at the Emirates. When I saw our XI I was a bit disappointed as I thought it was quite cautious but we’ve actually been quite adventurous going forwards. 

Bakayoko’s inclusion is what made me think we’d be more conservative, but he’s actually been far more beneficial to the team when in Arsenal’s third than he has in ours, constantly leaving Özil free.

I can only assume Conte took it that Özil wouldn’t be playing, because he clearly hasn’t come up with a strategy to nullify him. Time and time again Wilshere or Xhaka have played the ball into the hole and Özil’s been completely unmarked, with acres of space ahead of him. Keep giving him that space and eventually he’ll end up doing something with it.

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2 minutes ago, JordanJH1993 said:

Coutinho has played a fair bit in the number ten role of late, especially when all the ‘fab four’ are available. Number ten is an area Mahrez has excelled in this season when Puel has played him there.



That's fair, but I still think they'd be better off going for a more like-for-like replacement. Mahrez has been really good in that position, but he's still essentially doing the thing he was doing from the right, just with more freedom of movement, and I think would still risk stepping on Salah's toes, and not replace Coutinho's creative element (given that Mane is also a similar sort of player on the other side). 

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2 minutes ago, polishgenius said:



That's fair, but I still think they'd be better off going for a more like-for-like replacement. Mahrez has been really good in that position, but he's still essentially doing the thing he was doing from the right, just with more freedom of movement, and I think would still risk stepping on Salah's toes, and not replace Coutinho's creative element (given that Mane is also a similar sort of player on the other side). 

Yeah, Mahrez would probably be a better option for Arsenal if they were signing players to replace Alexis and Özil.

It’s hard to really think of who would be a like-for-like replacement for Coutinho, though. I haven’t seen much of Lemar, to be fair - is he quite like Coutinho?

I mentioned this one before - and there’s quite a big gulf in class between the two - but Lanzini isn’t far away from Coutinho in terms of style. They can both play wide on the left or centrally and both share a wicked strike with their right foot. Obviously Lanzini can be brilliant for West Ham but can also go missing for long spells, so would he be able to make the move from a poor West Ham side to a side competing for the top four and in the Champions League? Probably not, but there’s a similarity between the two.

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I am still wondering why Conte is not playing the same 343 system he used to play last season. Mostly considering the weakness of this Arsenal back-3, can you imagine how destructive could a pair of wingers such as Hazard & Willian/Pedro have been tonight ?

So, what's the point of playing with a stronger midfield if it lets only Hazard & Morata wandering upfront ? Really, someone has to explain that.

In the end, that was definitely a good 2nd half. I would not said that this penalty was unfair. Hazard played it cunningly, but that was not shocking. As a Man United supporter, I have to congratulate Bellerin for that strike. (we are 2nd o/)

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4 minutes ago, Sandokan I Ironborn said:

I am still wondering why Conte is not playing the same 343 system he used to play last season. Mostly considering the weakness of this Arsenal back-3, can you imagine how destructive could a pair of wingers such as Hazard & Willian/Pedro have been tonight ?

So, what's the point of playing with a stronger midfield if it lets only Hazard & Morata wandering upfront ? Really, someone has to explain that.

In the end, that was definitely a good 2nd half. I would not said that this penalty was unfair. Hazard played it cunningly, but that was not shocking. As a Man United supporter, I have to congratulate Bellerin for that strike. (we are 2nd o/)

It tends to be big games against our rivals and games away from home that Conte uses this new 3511 formation. I think it’s to have an extra man in midfield - although given Bakayoko’s performance, you wouldn’t believe we had an extra man in midfield - and it gets the best out of Hazard. Hazard is brilliant on the wing, but playing off a striker in a ‘free’ role, he’s even better. Tonight, he was exceptional, I thought. Despite Morata’s poor execution in front of goal, he and Hazard actually link up really well.

I agree, though, I would have gone for 343 tonight and I wouldn’t have played Bakayoko. Willian has been in great form lately, so I think he should have been given the nod in a game like this, but Conte hasn’t really played Willian or Pedro from the start in many big games this season.

What I do like about our performance tonight is that it is such a positive change from days of old when we would have come to the Emirates and tried to grind out a result. I can’t remember many times Chelsea have been involved in one of the games of the season, where it was end to end and both teams were attacking to try to win the game.

Yes, tonight we didn’t get the win, but it wasn’t through want of trying.

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